David Radavich is a socially committed poet, playwright, and essayist. Among his poetry volumes are Slain Species (Court Poetry, London, 1980), By the Way: Poems over the Years (Buttonwood, 1998), and Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2000). Individual works have appeared widely in journals and anthologies. America Bound: An Epic for Our Time (Plain View, 2007) narrates U.S. history from World War II to the present through the eyes of everyday Americans, while Canonicals (Finishing Line, 2009) investigates “love’s hours.” Middle-East Mezze (Plain View, 2011) focuses on a troubled, enchanting part of our world. The Countries We Live In (Main Street Rag, 2014) explores our inner and outer geographies. Magic Again: Selected Poems on Thomas Wolfe, co-edited with David Strange, appeared in 2016. His narrative volume, America Abroad: An Epic of Discovery (Plain View, 2019), is a lively, broad-ranging companion volume to America Bound. Unter der Sonne / Under the Sun (Deutscher Lyrik, 2021), a dual-language volume, showcases his German poems. His latest book, Here’s Plenty (Cervena Barva, 2023), celebrates the fecundity of the American South.
Over twenty of Radavich’s plays, both serious and comic, have been performed across the U.S. at such venues as the Charleston Alley Theatre (IL), First Stage Los Angeles (CA), Love Creek Productions (NY), Mississippi State University Theatre, New Perspectives Theatre (NY), and Orthwein Theatre (MO), as well as in Germany. Six plays have won prizes, and six have been published.
Radavich has written scholarly and informal essays on poetry and drama and has performed in such far-flung locations as Canada, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Greece, and Iceland. Among his honors are being selected as the 2009 Distinguished Professor at Eastern Illinois University and being inducted into the University Professionals of Illinois Wall of Fame (2010). In 2012 he was awarded the MidAmerica Award for his contributions to Midwestern literature and scholarship, as well as the Zelda and Paul Gitlin Literary Prize for best essay on Thomas Wolfe. He received the Paul and Zelda Gitlin Literary Prize for best essay on Thomas Wolfe again in 2014. Among a number of leadership positions, he has served as president of the Thomas Wolfe Society, Charlotte Writers’ Club, and North Carolina Poetry Society. He currently coordinates the state-wide Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Series.